Rachel Collinson

Background

Rachel Collinson has lived in Newham with her husband for the last 2 years and runs a small business. She has a strong faith that motivated her to get into politics, to protect the environment and narrow the divide between rich and poor. She loves comedy, music and LOLcats.

1. What do you plan to do in order to make sure you remain ‘in touch’ with the electorate?

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see that I prioritise responding to your questions and concerns. I’ve started as I mean to go on, by being active in the local community and have been helping out with those in need in West Ham such as the Upton Centre and Focus E15 Mums campaigns. I hope that you’ll see my face around and unless I’m dog tired I’m always happy to stop and chat.

2. What makes you the best candidate for this constituency?

I think West Ham has been taken a bit for granted by a Labour party sliding ever further rightward. We need some new energy, from a candidate who actually believes in building more social housing, renationalising the railways and protecting small businesses and working-class people against the interests of huge corporations.

3. What has the current Member achieved that you believe has been successful?

Lyn has consistently voted against the worst excesses of the Coalition government and her attendance in parliament has been good.

4. In your opinion, is austerity working? What should we take from the state of the economy during this Government’s tenure?

In 2010 the Green Party predicted that we would have a double-dip recession if the Coalition implemented their planned cuts, and that’s exactly what happened. From this we can learn that cutting government expenditure to grow the economy is like quitting your job to focus on paying off your student loan. We need to be bold and reform the banking system, and reduce the deficit by taxing those who can afford it and investing in our economy.

5. Does (legal) immigration need more limitations or is it vital for the UK?

It’s not only vital for the UK but it’s our moral duty to accept refugees from the wars and environmental disasters that we ourselves created. They in turn create jobs and enrich our society. It makes no sense whatsoever to blame immigrants for the problems that bankers and cuts created.

6. Many people are concerned about the cost of living in the UK, with wages having failed to rise in line with the price of food, energy and rent in recent years. How can this be corrected?

We need a living wage. To help small businesses afford this, the Green Party would abolish employers’ national insurance.
We also need more affordable housing, and the Green Party would create 500,000 new social homes through refurbishing empty buildings and building on brownfield sites.
We would also undertake a large programme of energy efficiency investment to reduce fuel bills for everybody and create jobs at the same time.

7. How would you like to see the NHS change in the future in order to become more successful?

The NHS is driven by numbers at the moment, and doctors and nurses are finding this incredibly stressful and inhuman. We need to have patient-centred care rather than money-centred care. THe NHS also needs proper investment. To do this, we’d reverse marketisation, saving £10 billion a year, and raise an additional £2 billion by increasing taxes on alcohol and tobacco.

8. What measures do you think need to be taken to decrease unemployment, particularly youth unemployment and those who have never been employed?

There is a skills shortage in this country, and to address this we need decent free education – a right not a privilege. Also, mental health problems prevent a huge number of people from seeking and keeping a job. The Green Party would prioritise treatment. We also need investment in job creation, with support for small business and infrastructure investment. I love the Green Party’s detailed plan to created a million jobs over the next 5 years.

9. Does the lack of diversity in Parliament equate to a lack of representation?

YES, absolutely! Most politicans have no idea what it’s like for ordinary people. You only need to look at the champagne bill in the Commons bar to see how out of touch Parliament is with reality.

10 . If an EU Referendum were to take place, how would you encourage your constituents to vote and why?

I believe a referendum will be a great thing for our country, allowing us to finally settle the matter once and for all, and communicating to the EU how urgent the need is for reform. I would encourage my constituents to vote yes, because Europe has brought us peace for the last 60 years and that is very precious.

Get In Touch

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us using the details below.

This privacy policy sets out how Candidate Hub uses and protects any information that you give Candidate Hub when you use this website. Candidate Hub is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 26/08/2014.

Who we are:

We are a new site for 2015 aiming to revolutionise the way people in Britain vote in General Elections.

How we collect information:

We collect information such as your name and email address if you send us a message via the contact form on our website.

We also collect data using Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google. Google utilizes the data collected to track and examine the use of www.candidatehub.co.uk, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services.

Google may use the data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

The following are not Strictly Necessary, but are required to provide you with the best user experience and also to tell us which pages you find most interesting (anonymously).

Please note that we treat usage of our website as acceptance of cookies. You are free to block them but if you do so then we cannot guarantee that our website will be fully functional.

First Party Cookies:

The following cookie is set by Candidate Hub to remember whether or not you have read and dismissed the 'cookie acknowledgement' on this website. This cookies is set to expire 365 days after it is set, ensuring the cookie acknowledgment isn't shown to you again for at least 365 days after you have dismissed it. This cookie does not store or collect any personal information.

ch_ca - expires in 365 days

For information on how to manage and block individual cookies please visit aboutcookies.org.

Performance Cookies:

This website will track the pages that you visit via Google Analytics. The following cookies are used by Google Analytics to do so:

For information on how to manage and block individual cookies please visit aboutcookies.org.

Links to other websites:

Our website contains links to other websites. By using these links you will leave our website. Please note that we do not have any control over external websites and so we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting any external website that we link to. The external websites that we link to are not governed by this privacy statement. Please exercise caution when viewing external websites and be sure to view the privacy statement that is applicable to the website.